Articles related to Marijuana

In recent weeks the Delta County Sheriff's Office has received numerous phone calls from people asking how many marijuana plants can be grown legally. The answer is 12 plants in or on a residential property in the unincorporated portions of Delta County.

On Monday, Feb. 26, a community forum on the "Effects of Marijuana on Our Community" convened at the Delta Performing Arts Center. This forum came together in response to the ballot question on taxation of retail marijuana and marijuana products in Delta and Orchard City.

Voters in the Town of Crawford will have a taxing question in the upcoming municipal election in April, although it will not add revenue to the town anytime soon. Last week the town council approved asking the voters to approve a 5 percent sales tax on marijuana sales within the Town of Crawford, with authority to increase this to up to 10 percent without further approval from the voters.

The Town of Crawford adopted an ordinance at its Jan. 3 meeting, updating its regulations regarding the cultivation and possession of marijuana within the town limits. It reflects changes last year in the state's laws regulating marijuana cultivation in residences.

The Delta County Commissioners have adopted an ordinance giving notice that, pursuant to Colorado statutes, the county will limit the cultivation, growth or production of marijuana plants to residential property within unincorporated Delta County to 12 marijuana plants per residential property, regardless of the number of persons residing at the property.

At the municipal election scheduled for April 3, Delta voters will fill two council seats and be asked to consider taxation on the sale of marijuana, even though sales are currently prohibited.

A petition is being circulated that asks Delta City Council to reconsider a 2013 ordinance prohibiting retail marijuana stores, marijuana cultivation facilities, retail marijuana products manufacturing and marijuana testing facilities within the City of Delta.

An ordinance being considered by the Paonia board of trustees could limit the number of marijuana plants grown at a single residence to six while allowing for 12 plants to be grown for medicinal purposes. But in enforcing the ordinance, how can police officers differentiate between plants grown for medicinal use and those grown for recreational use?

The public is invited to an informal discussion of a proposed marijuana ordinance regulating in-town marijuana laws and penalties. The meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, at Paonia Town Hall, 214 Grand Avenue.

A meeting with the Town of Paonia's governmental affairs committee to discuss a proposed ordinance related to the Town of Paonia's in-town marijuana growing regulations will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 1, at Paonia Town Hall, 214 Grand Avenue.

Discussion of a marijuana ordinance before the Paonia Board of Trustees was tabled at the Sept. 26 meeting to give the public and the board more time to consider its implications. The draft ordinance was also referred to the town Public Safety and Governmental Affairs committee for review.

The Crawford Town Board was expecting to do the first reading of a marijuana ordinance at its work session on Sept. 20. When it became apparent that it was incomplete and trustees had more questions than answers, the matter was tabled and placed on the agenda for its regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

Orchard City's Cannabis Revenue Committee announced last week that it is ready to drop a recommendation for immediate repeal of the town's ordinances which bans marijuana business. The committee had recommended the town repeal current bans on medical and commercial marijuana businesses before taking the question of sales tax from marijuana businesses to the voters. It has drawn notable public opposition.

Orchard City constituents turned out for the town board's Aug. 9 meeting with comments offered to their government on management of the water utility, on marijuana businesses, and on the town board's fiscal responsibility.

The Orchard City Town Board is scheduled to hear a further report from the Cannabis Revenue Committee -- trustees Tom Huerkamp and Gynee Thomassen -- on potential town revenue from licensing fees on marijuana business at its regular Aug. 9 meeting.

The draft report update is a one-page document dealing with "manufacturing, testing, and transport licenses."

Area residents on July 12 pushed back against Orchard City's moves toward allowing marijuana businesses to operate in town. However, not all were opposed. Some spoke of personal benefits from medical marijuana.

The Orchard City Town Board will move ahead with an expanded study of the types of marijuana businesses that could be allowed in town to provide government funding following town board action on July 12.

The town board's Cannabis Revenue Committee will also continue looking into six types of marijuana businesses, including retail shops, that could provide money to local government.

The Orchard City Town Board on July 12 will discuss, and possibly act on, a trustee committee report that lays out a road map for the eventuality of voter approval for marijuana businesses in town, including repeal of the town's current bans.

The first recommendation board's cannabis revenue committee is that "the town should start the process of repealing the ordinances of 2011 and 2013 prohibiting any type of licensed marijuana business."

Orchard City Town Board members are expressing second thoughts about allowing marijuana businesses in town as a way to generate more tax revenue for town government.

Speaking at the town board's June 14 meeting, trustee Craig Fuller expressed his opposition to the town board taking unilateral action and allowing marijuana business because it would be against the express will of the people, and he offered an alternative plan.

Editor's note: With a majority of Orchard City trustees expressing interest in marijuana business as a way of raising town government revenue, and with a majority of town residents likely opposed to the idea, thanks to Orchard City resident Matt Soper for compiling a history of the marijuana issue in Orchard City and Delta County. (Sources and references are available.)

Orchard City Mayor Ken Volgamore and some of the town board members expressed disappointment that a room full of constituents left immediately following the previous week's community meeting on government revenue and marijuana.

"It was very interesting," Volgamore said during the town board's regular meeting on Feb. 8, "that after we went over the three items, especially the marijuana, that all but four [of the 70 people] got up and left.

During the Orchard City town meeting on marijuana and town revenues last week, Mayor Ken Volgamore noted that the town board has the ability to allow marijuana business in the town without putting the issue to a vote of the electorate. However, the mayor did not endorse doing so.

The idea of Orchard City turning to marijuana as a town government tax source first came up at the end of a budget work session last September. Mayor Ken Volgamore took a straw poll of trustees on the marijuana-as-revenue issue. No decisions were made at that time.

There are plenty of studies that discuss the benefits of marijuana use. New literature links cannabis to the improvement of many diseases, including the use of marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of nausea in chemotherapy patients.

A Cedaredge couple awaiting trial for cultivation and distribution of marijuana has again been arrested.

Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee reports the arrests are a result of an investigation conducted by the sheriff's office and two federal agencies -- the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A Crawford resident's ongoing attempts to convince town council to allow a marijuana business to operate in town continues to cause turmoil. His request, repeated at the Sept. 22 council meeting, resulted in name-calling, heated arguments, and a trustee walking out in protest of comments made by her fellow trustees.

Charges have been filed against a Cedaredge couple accused of operating a large marijuana grow operation on Cactus Park Road east of Cedaredge.

Stormy Griffith, 36, and his wife Stacy, 32, have been charged with cultivation of marijuana (more than 30 plants); possession with intent to manufacture, dispense, sell or distribute marijuana or marijuana concentrate; processing or manufacturing marijuana and marijuana concentrate; distribution of marijuana concentrate; and possession of a Schedule I controlled substance.

At the Jan. 27 meeting of the Paonia town board, a discussion regarding the issue of allowing marijuana businesses within town limits focused largely on jobs and the economy. Trustee Ross King, who requested the discussion, said the creation of jobs, in light of the struggling economy, is a "paramount concern" the board should be discussing. He noted that other area towns are eyeing cannabis sales, production and testing as an "economic generator... We should be discussing it among ourselves and among our community."

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office reports the arrest of a Cedaredge man, 68-year-old Steven McElmury, for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

McElmury was arrested Thursday, Jan. 21, after a sheriff's K-9 indicated the odor of narcotics coming from McElmury's 2014 Dodge Ram pickup, which was found unoccupied in a business parking lot in Lincoln, Neb. The pickup had been observed driving eastbound on Interstate 80 a few minutes earlier.

Hotchkiss voters will have the opportunity to decide whether to allow cannabis and cannabis-related businesses after the town council vote to put the issue on the April 5 ballot. Trustee James Roberts did not cast a vote.

An extensive investigation that took DEA investigators from the west edge of Montrose County to a grow operation in Gateway Canyon, and finally to property north of Cedaredge, resulted in the seizure of approximately 1,300 pounds of marijuana last week. In addition, two arrests were made.